Muso's Guide presents... Canadian Blast

Spiral Beach are sonic rebels unafraid of breaking all the rules and having a party in the process! The band’s love of exploring different sounds and song structures is offset by their sophisticated sense of melody and elaborate vocal harmonies. And what’s more, we’re putting them in two weeks today! Spiral Beach are headlining our London Queen of Hoxton show on Tuesday November 24, playing alongside Hey Rosetta!, The Argument And How It Started and Redbluegreen.

The band has spent the last three years touring across the the United States and Canada with bands like the Hidden Cameras, The Go! Team and Tokyo Police Club, as well as performing in the UK in 2008 to celebrate the release of the ‘Voodoo’ single. They have also gained a devoted following in their hometown of Toronto thanks to their innovative live performances, putting on DIY all-ages shows in unusual venues such as art galleries, theatres, loft spaces and outdoor parks, which often feature audience participation and interactive visual projections.

The band has released two albums on Sparks Music in North America, 2007’s  Ball (recorded by ex-Hidden Cameras and Arcade Fire member Michael Olsen) and their most recent album The Only Really Thing.

Are you looking forward to returning to the UK?

Yes of course!! It’s been over a year since we were in London, we can’t wait to be back!

Your wildly audacious songs seem to have got even bolder and grander three albums down the line. How do you contain yourselves in the studio?

For The Only Really Thing we put a lot more time into working in the studio – our last album Ball was recorded live off the floor in a barn over just a couple of weekends. This time around we spent pretty much the whole winter holed up in Mike Olsen’s basement experimenting with different sounds, sampling, overdubbing etc… we ended up building a lot of the sound effects from scratch and them sampling our own record when it came to playing it live! It’s very important to us that the band be able to reproduce all the sounds you hear on the album.

The influences in your music seem wide-ranging. You described Ball as “Frankenstein on ecstasy”, and The Only Really Thing as Frankenstein on ecstasy in a Bollywood movie from 1968″. How would you describe the live show and what can we expect?

We’ve always really loved the sound of those Bollywood compilations from the 60s and 70s… there’s something about the multi-textured collage kind of feel that kind of connected with what we were doing anyway, so we made a conscious decision to use those records as a direct reference for recording the album – we thought it would be interesting since most of those artists were emulating western psychedelic bands originally, and here were are these kids from Toronto kind of reversing it, like a ping-pong effect.

What music are you guys all into?

We listen to pretty much everything that’s out there, my iTunes is on shuffle all the time… right now there’s some really great bands coming out of Toronto who we’ve gotten to play with, like DD/MM/YYYY and Slim Twig, definitely gotta check them out…

From the clips we’ve seen of your frantic, exciting performances, it’s going to be some spectacular. But do you write for performance?

We’ve always thought of us as being a visual band, so we try to make each show as exciting as possible for the audience… because of the logistics involved we can’t bring our projectionist over to the UK, but you can check out some of his work here.

Canada’s definitely produced some gems over the past few years. Were you Hidden Cameras fans before Mike Olsen became your producer?

We’ve actually gone on tour with the Hidden Cameras three times now across Canada and the US… they’re definitely one of our favourite bands, me and my brother Airick ended up playing with them almost every show! I think it’s both amazing and hilarious that people are starting to recognize Canada as a country where everyone plays in an awesome indie band… living in downtown Toronto it actually kind of feels like that sometimes…

What are your greatest influences? Where did the fascination with Bollywood come from? And what happens next?

We’ve played in this band almost seven years now with the same four members, so we’ve discovered all kinds of music together… we’re working on a couple of different projects right now that we’re really excited about; I’m writing insane techno-punk songs with Karoline Lebrun in montreal (she’s the one who originally introduced us to all this Bollywood craziness) and Airick is actually bringing over some cassettes to the London show of his solo stuff that he’s just finished – ask him about them! It’s incredible stuff, sounds like Throbbing Gristle covering Syd Barrett or something.

Get your tickets now for Muso’s Guide presents… Canadian Blast at the Queen of Hoxton on Tuesday 24 by clicking anywhere in this sentence.

Flood Tide

This is awesome! The River Thames dictates musical notes to a band in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The vibraphone trills and tinkles, the flute sighs, the clarinet swooshes and the ‘cellos throb like an undercurrent. It is ambient music to sweep you away…

Jazz trumpeter and ‘Flood Tide’ composer John Eacott calls it a ‘sonification’ of the Thames. He explains that the tidal pull of the moon causes the tide to ebb and flow. So his sensors, placed in the river near Greenwich pier, detect the rising height of the water. And they track changes in its speed, temperature and direction of travel. All this data is beamed up to the laptops that sit on the music-stands instead of printed music. Each time a signal is received it corresponds to a set of notes on one of the instruments, so as the cursor washes over the dots on the stave it keeps the rhythm of the water flowing over that particular sensor and that is what we hear coming out of the instruments. Nature and music, science and art come together and the Royal Observatory is hosting the experimental concerts as part of the anniversary celebrations for forty years since man walked on the moon.

To be honest, it doesn’t always sound like water. It’s more like the sensation of being rocked in a boat – sometimes a cradle, sometimes a rollercoaster log-flume. The sound is ever-changing, and also soothingly similar from one hour to the next. John Eacott suggests that people listen for a while then go away and come back to hear how the turning tide has made subtle changes in the sound.

The tide of tourists ebbs and flows, some stopping to listen, others baffled and hurrying back to more familiar sights and sounds. They are missing a unique experience which affects me deeply. I can’t wait for the next performance, on September 12th as part of the Thames Festival. That will be even more impressive, with forty musicians rather than six and a sense of the river’s mighty power.

It’s at the Cottons Centre near HMS Belfast on the south bank of the Thames near London Bridge from 1400 with more details here.

Blank canvases, a.k.a. CDs for mixology.

As Rob Flemming’s character says in High Fidelity (or Rob Gordon if you’ve never read the book):

“To me, making a mix tape is like writing a letter — there’s a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do.”

So without further ado, welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the inaugural Muso’s Guide Mix CD event!

Here’s how it’s gonna go down:

Send an email to me, Peter Harris (I’m on podge9<at>gmail<dot>com), including the following information:

1. Your name
2. Your home address (or where you would like the CD sent)
3. Whether you are going to the Summer social* (’cause CDs can be exchanged there)
4. Up to three of your favourite all time bands
5. Up to three of your most liked albums
6. Up to three of your least liked bands/music genres
7. A link to your Last.fm page (if you have one) – ours is here, in case you didn’t know

I will try and match people up accordingly.

*[Ed: The summer meet-up is a special day in celebration of Muso's Guide's sixth anniversary, and you're all invited. We're having an all-day picnic - more details are available on the page in the link]

I do realise that one of the reasons for a mix CD is to try new stuff but at the same time, you don’t want it to be full of stuff you know will make you sick up your ears.

If we have an even amount of takers, I’ll pair people up so A makes CD for B and B makes for A, uneven numbers and we’ll make a jaggy snake, A makes for B, B makes for C, C makes for A etc.

Rules:

1. It must be a CD – no Spotify lists or MP3 CDs.
2. Pretty obvious but make sure you write down the artist/track name and the album it’s taken from.
3. If you want to set a theme or decorate the CD, go for it.

E-mails in by the end of this week please (June 21) and I’ll send out details of who you’re mixing for next week.

Island 50

Phonica Records, 51 Poland Street, London W1.

How the f*** can you get fifty years of groundbreaking, independent, innovative music into an exhibition in the basement of a tiny record shop in London’s Soho?

Of course you can’t. But then you don’t have to. Island 50 is a year-long fest showcasing the best of the many eclectic artiste on the label, including documentaries on Channel 4, 1-Xtra, Absolute, BBC 4 and Radio 2, a special session at the Montreux Jazz Festival with Grace Jones, Marianne Faithfull and Baaba Maal and your chance to be part of the party by uploading user generated content to http://www.island50.com. Whew!

Still, the Soho basement is a good place to start. Music videos, giant album sleeves and just the right number of words to guide you through the fifty year history make this a fascinating place to spend an hour. You would think that a collection of rebel hearts such as the Slits, King Crimson and Nick Drake would not lend themselves to the museum treatment but the whole place has such a light touch that it works as a showcase. Young ‘uns will see the legends in a new light and oldies like me will enjoy a nostalgia trip. Recommended!

There are toy soldiers, ancient tape recorders, Mick’s drawings from art school, VHS tapes of Only Fools and Horses and On the Buses, old tickets and concert posters. Album covers dangle on strings, dusty boxes of cassettes jostle for space with stacks of hefty non-fiction books and an empty pizza box. It’s not just any pizza box, though – it’s printed with a picture of The Clash.

Fans and art-lovers can rummage through most of the stuff, though the magazines (Creem, Rolling Stone and so on) are kept in plastic covers and displayed on the wall, to preserve them. Mick Jones himself pops in now and then to re-arrange things or to add new stuff from the lock-up. His dream is to have a public library of rock n’ roll, available for everyone. It will not be the sort of library where you have to whisper – his music plays constantly and there are squeaks of delight from the French teenagers and the eight year old Londoner whose fascination with the Clash prove that the spirit of punk is not yet dead. Of course there are sixty-somethings too, muttering and marvelling at those quirky little things that evoke strong memories of bygone gigs.

In the exhibition blurb, director Donald Smith writes “resolutely alternative and defiantly anti-corporate, it is like the dub-side of the O2’s British Music Experience”. It also makes you think about war and propaganda and the bloated self-indulgence of progressive music which punk set out to destroy.

The collection is a creation, in the spirit of Damien Hirst who was once challenged about his pickled  sheep by an interviewer who asked “Is it art?” “If it’s in an art gallery it must be art” was the reply. By collecting  and selecting certain pieces from the torrent of TV, films and music that has washed over him since 1976 Mick Jones has made a sort of life story that is unique to him. There are obvious ways in which his things inspire his songs – for example the toy soldiers doubtless marched their way into the lyrics of ‘Eton Rifles’. But the whole exhibition gives off more subtle messages too. It makes you feel somehow intimate with him and sends you back to your record collection to listen again with different pictures in your mind.

Next time he persuades an art college to host the show don’t miss it and check it out at http://www.chelseaspace.org/

One EskimO

It’s a sunny afternoon in London and we find ourselves sitting in Soho House in a 27 seat cinema for the viewing of an animation film that accompanies the album All Balloons from new collective One EskimO. This is an unusual concept and brings with it that tingling anticipation that this could be something rather special. We are far from wrong.

The ten track album is backed by a series of ten short animations that breed imagination and magic. The basic concept of the story is that of a small Eskimo with three friends – a monkey, penguin and giraffe, a concept dreamt up by front man Kristian Leontiou (who has previously found fame with a solo career who experienced chart success driven by his debut album Some Day Soon in 2004). The animations are incredible and breathtaking. Just eighteen months ago Kristian won a Brit Animation Award for the creation of one small film, and now these creations have grown to encapture the whole album.

What is incredible about this album is that it works perfectly in three ways; as a standalone album to listen to, as a short film animation with soundtrack, and as we later this evening discover as a live set.

The sequence begins with ‘Astronauts’ which is a melancholic and simplistic track. The vocals are harmonious and fluid with a real sincerity and purity that unravel to tell the tale of the little Eskimo. The animation sets the scene with the birth of the Eskimo, which a sound that builds into something rather epic. The soundtrack is relaxing and calm, and develops to chart the separation of the Eskimo and little Red Indian girl. “So whenever you need space/I guess it’s okay/When you’re floating away/To feel nothing at all/We can be astronauts/If you want to get out of here”.

Second track ‘Kandi’, the debut single from the band, introduces us to the other three characters in the animation, set against a warm and sunset like background. A revelation of spine-tingling and intricate vocals juxtaposed against soft and harmonious melodies, the animation really comes alive and we begin to feel attached to the characters in the story. Without a doubt, as far as animated bands go, One EskimO beats the likes of Gorillaz any day. ‘Slip’ introduces us to a magic star that features throughout the concept of the album, “And of all the creatures under the sky/There is you and I”. The Eskimo has a vision of being reunited with the little Red Indian girl in an endearing and loveable track that leaves a lasting impression.

The highlight of the album is arguably ‘Hometime’, the opening track of the album that features half way through the animation. It is melodic and a little more upbeat, a catchy and memorable track that sums up the sound of the band effectively and provokes interest. “Collect all your things ‘cos it’s hometime”. The guitar melody is so very simple yet captures the mood beautifully.

‘It’s Amazing’ does exactly what it says on the tin, drawing a fantastic animation to a close, the star has become a symbol of hope, and the sounds gradually build, creating a sense of letting everything go as the Eskimo flies, the characters are reunited and they jump holding hands. It is not hard to see why the band have already gained so much attention.

The whole concept and performance is enchanting. After seeing the film there is some scepticism as to how well it will translate on stage but it works wonderfully, and somehow still captures the magic of the characters through the music and sounds. Kristian Leontiou’s vocals lend a real quality of innocence and clarity to the concept; these vocals are inarguably the key to the success of the whole creation. The talent that he has demonstrated through the animation, music and conceptual ideas with the help of his band is admirable; it is a long time since we have witnessed a unique talent like this. Both the Shepherds Bush Hall and the 27 seat cinema here tonight are left truly under the spell of the magic of One Eskimo.

If you like your music with an unusual twist and a sprinkle of magic then this band is truly not to be missed. You can see One EskimO on tour in May and the album All Balloons will be released digitally on 29th June 2009.

Threatmantics – MySpace friends: 2382 (Cardiff, Wales)

Much is made on Threatmantics use of the viola in place of a guitar, and rightly so. Whilst the instrument has seen a renaissance in recent years with the burgeoning London folk scene and the likes of Arcade Fire using one on stage, here it’s used in a slightly different manner by the band. Instead of being an additional part of their sound it’s very much centre stage. So while ‘Get Out of Town’ sounds like it could snugly fit on The Wicker Man OST elsewhere they sound more like Fairport Convention or Creedence Clearwater Revival playing in the same room as Physical Graffiti era Led Zeppelin. The heavier, thrasher feedback friendly nature of their side is played up heavily on stage and it’ll not surprise you to hear the occasional bit of Welsh might be slipped in.

Alessi’s Ark – MySpace Friends: 4709 (London)

Alessi’s Ark is the stage name of Alessi Laurent-Marke, whose debut album Notes from the Treehouse is due out next month and was recorded with the help of Mike Mogis (of Bright Eyes). Like the best pastoral folk music, Aleesi’s Ark seems to spend it’s time with a permanent sense of autumnal dusk. Augmented by Ohama’s finest strings, harps and brass which bring the best out of Laurent-Marke’s otherworldly songs, subject matter includes  the weather, horses, kite-flying and freckles. There’s much to be enjoy here and plenty to look forward to with comparisons to a Cat Power fronted Thrills or even (though no less warranted) to Joanna Newsom or Syd Barrett’s wide-eyed, child like song writing being thrown up. She’ll be backed by members of Mumford and Sons this weekend.

Three Trapped Tigers – MySpace Friends: 1140 (London)

One of the more surprising acts to qualify for this list, we were sure they’d be above the capacity for The Roundhouse.  Whilst comparisons to Battles can and should be made, the majority of their numerically numbered songs include moments that bring to mind the electronic pulse of Holy Fuck as well as some much calmer post-rock interludes.  Like and good live act they don’t thrive on volume alone, the tonal shifts and gaps between peaks and troughs are what make it all so thrilling. Might be worth earplugs if you are near a speaker, we wouldn’t want you to step out in front of a car on Camden High St now would we.

Lion Club – MySpace friends 3967 (London)

It’s reassuring to hear a band that has a fantastic, powerful vocalist who really does bring each and every song he sings up a level through sheer brute power. Not just by being loud either, there’s a sense of direction and unleashing it when appropriate. Mixed in with some sky-scrapping guitar work and cacophonous drums it adds to a thrilling prospect. Setting their sights on the Big Music of Echo and The Bunnymen and thrashing din of The Jesus and Mary Chain does them no harm and even in demo form a call to arms like ‘Middle of The Night’ begs to be ringing in the ears of as many punters as can be crammed it to hear it. Think White Lies but better.

Copy Haho – MySpace Friends: 4280 (Stonehaven, Scotland)

It’s good to hear such a new band so in love with the sound of Young Scotland but not restricting themselves to solely aping Josef K and Orange Juice, recent EP Bred for Skills and Magic showcased not just a penchant for the styling of Postcard Record’s finest but throwing a dash of US indie in with nods to Pavement, particularly on ‘Bad Blood’, amongst others. They do the whole pared down; quiet introspectiveness as well as they do the choppy indie disco shuffle. One is tempted to point out that this is what early REM were so good at doing. Thankfully not really picked up in the crush to crown the next big thing at the start of the year, they’ve continued to tour hard in the first part of the year and we are eager to hear any new material they have to offer.

Your Twenties – MySpace friends: 1558 (London)

Your Twenties lead singer Gabriel Stebbing is currently best known as a sometime member of Metronomy, if his band’s forthcoming debut contains many more tunes like ‘Caught Wheel’ then that won’t be the case. Sounding like an electronic bubble fuelled 21st century take on a lost, blissed out Fleetwood Mac or even Crosby, Stills and Nash number if one can imagine such an aural treat. Other demos pride themselves in being catchy, hummable and full of swooning backing vocals as well as ringing, chiming guitar micro-riffs. Will be equally at home getting people to move their feet late at night or to have them wistfully dreaming of the warmer days just around the corner.

The Big Pink – MySpace friends 4285 (London)

As winners of the NME Phillip Hall Radar award many words have been written on The Big Pink already. Following in the footsteps of Glasvegas, The Twang (No, really.), The Long Blondes, Kasier Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand it’s clear there will be plenty more. With the current folky flavour coming through in a many a new band taking their name from the title of The Band’s debut album may lead people to expect a certain sound from them. Well don’t. Instead they mix the processed, out of this world, woozy electronic pulses with the stoned, drone rock familiar to both of Jason Pierce’s bands and add in the sound of John Cale’s viola to (them again) The Jesus and Mary Chain’s early shoegaze template.

Despite the restriction we gave ourselves here, there are plenty of other bands appearing such as Marina & The Diamonds, Peggy Sue, The Joy Formidable and Little Death that are worth your time. If you really feel like checking something very fresh out, we’re keeping a beady eye on Indie Idle semi-finalist from Leeds, Laura Hocking (762 friends) as we love ‘Greenwich Mean Time’ and we want to see at the (totally made up) Laurafest 2010 with Miss Marling and Groves (Blue Roses) where she’ll fit right in for plenty more reasons than her first name.

Richard Milward

Loops is an exciting new project that comes out of a marriage between Domino Records and the book publishers Faber. It’s a bi-yearly journal that features the best from the worlds of music, art and literature. The first issue will have an extract from Nick Cave’s new novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, as well as a James Yorkston “influences” piece.

After an introduction from the journal’s editors, Lee Brackstone of Faber and Richard King of Domino Records, the authors take to the stage.

Richard Milward is often referred to as the “The Boro Bard”. Raised on the mean streets of Teesside, 24-year-old Milward’s intoxicating tales of sex, drugs and Ibiza dance classics have formed the base for his two novels, 2007’s Apples and the recently released Ten Storey Love Song. A thoroughly charming fella, Milward reads from his latest novel with a handmade cardboard “block of flats” over his head. His account of the lives of the grimy, disaffected youth of a Middlesbrough tower block is one of the best reads of 2009 so far, spanning one massive paragraph that’s knee-deep in pop culture. Milward’s essay on Spacemen 3 features in the first issue of Loops, which is out in July 2009.

One of Faber’s most esteemed writers, Hanif Kureishi, is next, reading from his classic 1990 book The Buddha Of Suburbia. Kureishi is an engaging reader and his humourous writing comes to life on the stage as the teenaged character of Karim. Calling into question race, culture and identity, the light-hearted facade of The Buddha of Suburbia covers poignant issues articulately and profoundly.

Faber is famed for its pop culture releases and Eugene McGuinness from the Domino stable seems to bridge the gap between music and literature with ease. He plays acoustic versions of songs from his debut album, The Early Learnings Of Eugene McGuinness, and his eponymously titled second record. It’s a strong performance, with his cheeky chappy troubadour tales such as ‘Fonz’ and ‘Wendy Wonders’ delivered with confidence and a smattering of falsetto.

It really is the best of both worlds when music and literature cross – as Londoners have experienced previously at the brilliant monthly BookSlam event. Loops is set to be a sought after read for anyone who’s a sucker for the cream of pop culture.

With this in mind we here have decided to hopefully give you a nod in the direction of a few newer acts that we feel might be worth seeking out. With the self-imposed criteria that their official MySpace page doesn’t have enough friends to fill the Roundhouse (3000 standing and 1800 seated). Hopefully, with the mini-festival featuring the likes of Adele, The Automatic, Foals, Guillemots, Kate Nash, Ida Maria, Ladyhawke, Late of The Pier, Laura Marling, Noah and The Whale and White Lies in embryonic stage amongst it’s small venues in the past couple of years, you’ll be thanking us for giving you an excuse to play the “I was there” card within a year.

BLK JKS: MySpace friends: (As of 18/4/09) 2510. (Johannesburg, South Africa)

With the deluge of New York bands that sound like they are from Africa it’s only fair that we give the spotlight to a South African band that sound like they are from Brooklyn. The most thrilling thing about BLK JKS is that they don’t sound like the earnest elements of TV on the Radio’s output where they are striving to be considered as successors to Radiohead but more akin to the one those found on ‘Wolf Like Me’ The drums, the yelping multi-tracked vocals are only going to make you think of David Sitek and Tunde Adebimpe, but you can dance your arse as much as you can stroke your chin to it. They have just started their first UK tour but the loose tightness of the band on the Mystery EP from earlier this year can be put down to a decade of playing together. I realise that loose tightness is an oxymoron but the songs vary between arty sound colleges and close knit, rumbling, riff roller-coasters.) . On ‘Mystery’ they crash out like Purple Rain era Prince being backed by The Stone Roses’ Reni. The rhythm section is just as tight on their other songs fellow Manchester band The Smiths and on ‘It’s In Every Thing You See’ they bring to mind the gloomy hiss of Joy Division’s ‘The Eternal’ and the guitar guest work of Robert Fripp. Expect them to showcase material from their being worked on debut, After Robots which might sound more world music than Roxy Music in a live setting.

Everything Everything: MySpace friends: 2547 (Manchester)

Named after the Underworld lyric from ‘Cowgirl’, Everything Everything dip their toes into so many genre rivers that twiddly art-rock disco doesn’t begin to do them justice. On demo ‘Weights’ they alternately sound like The Beach Boys hanging out at Studio 54 then The Futureheads via the more childlike rhymes of the Aphex Twin then The Beach Boys again via Daft Punk. On ‘Photoshop Handsome’ they mix a glorious new wave hooks full of video game references with post DFA guitar sunbursts. For anyone looking for a math-rock band who have heard some records this decade, sing like they mean it and allow you to move your feet (if you can lift them off the floor, it is Camden) this is the band for you.

Goldheart Assembly MySpace friends: 714 (London)

Like when The Strokes shook up the British music scene to an extent even five years later their influence, via The Libertines, was the primary one seen in not just new bands’ music but they way they looked. With the canning of Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong’s album last year we may have seen that trend reach an end. I’d happily wager the band that is heavily influencing the up-and-coming kids in a similar manner over here now is The Fleet Foxes. In under a year they have gone from being a minor buzz on the back of an EP to a big selling, critically acclaimed band that could choose a couple of bands they’ve influenced in every major British city to support them.  Goldheart Assembly are one such band and thankfully the similarities go beyond beards and checked shirts. One key difference that Fleet Foxes copyists across the land seem to have missed is that you can fill the songs with a sense of joy and euphoria as well as melancholy, listen to the acidic guitar line interrupting the verses on ‘Going Down Well’ which features the neat trick of not becoming simply a capella when the drums cool down, it’s met by scuzzy, dirty lick.

The Shitty Limits MySpace friends: 2011 (Reading)

The Shitty Limits manage to pull off sounding like they should be on the Nuggets compilation, No Thanks!: The 70’s Punk Rebellion box-set and warranting a mention in the book ‘Our Band Could Be Your Life’.  The band has already come to the attention of Rough Trade, featuring on the prestigious Counter Culture 08 compilation, as well as selling out 5 sets of DIY 7″s in the past year. (However they are available for free on their MySpace page for those that missed out). For all the screaming and ferocious drumming linked with American hardcore punk and dirty late sixties garage there’s a still a peculiar sense of Englishness to the way that one of the best live bands we’ve seen recently infuse the racket with hooks.

The Invisible MySpace friends: 2521 (London)

The Invisible are another band receiving a multitude of TV on the Radio references in their press, wholly justified but like BLK JKS it’s only telling part of the story. For all the moments they sound like a more restrained and laid-back version of the New Yorkers there are other moments that bring to mind Krautrock, Bloc Party, Prince or Radiohead. You can tell from the way they play each other that all three of them have been around for a while, playing for Roisin Murphy, Amy Winehouse and Polar Bear at different times. Skilfully matching their pop sensibilities with their more out-there tendencies, Matthew Herbert has done much the same with their record as he did with Micachu and the Shapes. You can expect them to be more energetic in their flesh than they sound on record.

Save The Beach

December 9th, 2008

Who would have thought to bring summer to Hoxton’s cavernous Circus Space on a brisk December eve? Those crazy sun-soaked kids from Corona is who, along with an entourage of models, A-listers, and one very chilled-out Australian.

Palms sway, powdery sand spills onto concrete, and a crew of Corona reps are on hand with an endless supply of the stuff. In aid of the Save the Beach preservation project, Mexico’s tastiest export has signed up fashion label Custo Barcelona, international model Bar Refaeli, and roots musician Xavier Rudd for a night of eco awareness, London-style.

The crowd might be wrapped up in scarves and coats, but that doesn’t stop Custo’s bronzed (and nearly naked) babes traipsing the sandy catwalk. Decked out in wild chiffon numbers and risky bikinis from the 2009 collection, Refaeli and her team do the label proud and set a glam tone for the rest of the night. 

After the show, an hour or so of mingling and more beer finally lead up to the musical portion of the evening. Rudd saunters on stage like a cheeky schoolkid, cap pulled down low and wearing a relaxed grin. Part of a trans-continental crop of roots performers (in the same vein as Ben Harper and the John Butler Trio), it seems Corona’s enviro-friendly cause is right up this Aussie’s proverbial alley. Against a backdrop of the Aboriginal flag (kudos), Rudd eases into the soulful, rhythmic tunes he knows so well. With an impressive display of three didgeridoos and a wacky Johnny Knoxville-esque drummer to his left, he gets some of the chatting crowd on side.

Rudd’s particular brand of laid-back strumming and husky vocals certainly suit the style of the evening. But with a somewhat abbreviated set, he seems to acknowledge that the average punter on the night probably hasn’t heard of him (and might be more interested in networking than paying any attention). Overall though, playing to a small gathering in support of a cause close to his heart seems to pay off, and no doubt he can count a few chilly Londoners as brand new fans.

Check out more from Melissa at her blog: http://morningelectric.wordpress.com/